The present invention relates to controlled motion mechanical members used as a mechanical manipulator and, more particularly, to a motion controllable mechanical manipulator having an output member positionable by incrementally operating plural threaded driving shafts.
There is an increasing need for robotic systems capable of placement in, and accurate member positioning operations in, locations characterized by small geometric dimensions of surrounding or nearby material assemblages such as small openings in structures or biological systems. Typically, there is wanted a severing, a removal, or some other reshaping of something within the opening or of something beyond the opening. Of course, such situations can also arise in larger opening systems.
Perhaps the most widely used controlled component in robotic systems is a mechanical manipulator, that portion of a robot used to change the position or orientation of selected objects engaged by that manipulator such as tools to be used in an opening. In many instances, such mechanical manipulators are desired to have capabilities similar to those of the human wrist, or shoulder, that is, exhibiting two or more degrees of freedom of motion.
Although a number of such mechanical manipulators have been developed which to a greater or lesser degree achieve some of these desires therefor, many have been relatively complicated devices requiring complicated components and difficult assembly procedures or both. Many, in addition, represent compromises in having relatively limited range, or singularities within the ranges, or other limitations in performance. Thus, there is a strong desire for a mechanical manipulator which can, under control of the user, position objects very accurately anywhere over at least much of a hemispherical surface without any singularities in the operation of the device in this range, and which can be made very small if so needed and made so inexpensively.